Update: Apparently this is Santa Muerte, a sacred figure and feminine skeletal folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico. I think I’ve seen it in one of Breaking Bad’s episodes. Thank you Posh!

I’ve seen many on Facebook today criticizing Bershka’s Lady of skulls shirt that disrespects Virgin Mary. While such a shirt may be considered as an insult to some Christians in Lebanon, I don’t think we need to make a big deal out of it. In fact, I am sure there are tons of other similar shirts (in terms of disrespecting religions) in the Lebanese Market that no one has discovered yet. If we were to point out all the items and products that are disrespectful to religions in the market, we will need to come up with a special ministry for that.

What may seem as fashionable to a group of people in a certain country can be offensive to another group in another country, so those who are bothered with this shirt can report it to the authorities who will be more than glad to ban it, or even file a complaint to Bershka or Azadea Group.

On a last note and after seeing MTV’s report on that shirt, I am not sure how anyone can monitor all the clothes coming to Lebanon and see which one is disrespectful to religions and which is not. The only way to do that is ban everything like Karl suggests in his post.

Satan looks cool for you I bet.
Please try to defend the picture of mother Mary or change your name from Mark or whatever to a coolest name, like Bark, or Death, or Hate, or cooler like Devil.
Seems cool.

This is not Santa muerte. Santa muerte doesn’t use the icons of the virgin Mary and turns them to skeleton figures, but is a separate entity. Using the words “Lady of Skulls” is vs. “Lady of Guadalupe”.

For your knowledge, the picture of the Lady of Guadalupe is considered by Mexicans as a miraculous picture and the true face of the Madonna and was offered by the virgin Mary to the Shepherd.

The T-shirt design is definitely a work of art, but don’t dare wearing it in Mexico.

when they talk about hassan nasrallah which is not a saint or prophet, they did a revolution.
For you, the Evil people insult you everyday, you will accept it?
OMG metel wahad byebzo2 3leik bet2oul 3am tchatte.
Enjoy.

“artists” seem to use controversial, provocative, or poor taste when it comes to art involving ‘Christian” figures/symbols.. Mostly it just gets some media attention and people resounding the art.
But look What happens to the artists when the disrespect Islam or the prophet Mohamed? The uproar can be deadly..

Lets say they did really protest ,does that gonna make them stop marketting the product ???Nooo,but just to add another thing if this were about another religion and we all know ,they would’ve all gone crazy in the streets protesting and burning tires

I think it’s a really cool shirt. The person wearing this is not going to wear it because “MUAHAHA SCREW YOU MARY”, they’re gonna wear it cz it looks cool. I find other prints on shirts more offensive.. You tend to make a big deal out of things that don’t need to be made a big deal out of.

I suggest that all the products that are directly offensive to religions should be banned… There’s no need to control them before shipping, just when someone spots them he/she should complain about it and it should be out of the market, this way they will learn not to produce such products at all. I personally always buy from Bershka, now I am so p**sed off that I don’t want to put my feet in that store.

What about alcohol? Alcohol is directly offensive to some religions so should we ban alcohol in Lebanon because some people find it offensive? What about pork?

Thing is once you start banning one thing why stop. How about movies that people find offensive? Lets ban those, and ban all nudity and on screen kissing and lets ban magazines that have offensive photos. And fuck books while we’re at it.

I feel the same Danielle
and Mark haha u made me laugh really: alcohol, pork and others does exist even before the rules of “some religions” as u know and not TRANSFORMED from something beautiful to a disgusting image which i can’t guess the meaning of it just to p*ss off “some religions”…and the nudity in movies!! ur over 18 no?

Wait let me get this straight. What you’re saying is that even though pork, alcohol and nudity is offensive to ALL muslims it shouldn’t be banned in Lebanon but this stupid tshirt which offends SOME Christians should be banned?

Mark, sometimes there’s no point in even responding to most of the comments because they simply don’t make sense. Case in point, the comment about the picture on one side and the alcohol and pork on the other. It simply does not make any sense how people think anymore and these are educated people, mind you.

I looked at this post and just thought “meh”. I’m not going to get all riled up about it and “not set my feet” in Bershka anymore. In any case, people should just learn to chill. Obviously Lebanon and this whole region has a long way to go.

There are sacred things we should protect. Satan himself is the one who designes such things by manipulating the designer’s mind.
If you do not beleive in Satan and can accept such satanic symbols it is your problem, doesnt mean he does not exist.
Even science and the education you talked about couldn’t prove wrong his existence.
So with the end of the world approaching every passing day, better be guarded and protect ourselves from evil by denying any existence or revelation or symbolization of it.

Nothing proves his existence either. Just because you talk about him doesn’t make him real. I could talk about elves and leprechauns but that doesn’t mean they exist.
And big religious guy like you should be more tolerant…but then talking about religious tolerance doesn’t make it any more real than fairies.
The Spanish Inquisition was not a good period.

coz u said we r uneducated if we deny this
i told u that i totally deny it and explained y and then told u m an educated person
u dont seem smart enough to understand
be smart enough to pray at least despite of ur opinion abt this stupid subject

Mark, just to make it clear so u understand i’m not against any religion
what i wanted to tell you that you can’t make this comparasion, it’s something totally different; i would talk about the carricature of Mouhamad in Danemark instead: was it acceptable for muslims?
well, this is the same for me and “some christians” (as u described us)..not acceptable

Everyone will always find a way to attack someone else’s religions, beliefs, values etc. At the end of the day, there’s 7 billion people on the planet, by the time I finish this paragraph, they will be 8 billion which means that not everyone will be aligned in the same way. It’s how we react that really defines us.

I agree with Mark here. The design is obviously a statement. It’s not pictures you should believe in, dudes. Pictures don’t make a difference, the way you draw Virgin Mary doesn’t make a difference or shouldn’t make a difference. It’s the spirit that matters, not the icon you kiss or you bow to.

I guess you have to educate yourselves people, this has nothing to do with Virgin Mary, its just an iconic painting drawn by Mexican Artist Jose Guadalupe Posada latest 1900 in remembrance of Day of Death.

To the idiot claiming this is santa Muerte and telling “dumb ignorant” people to check google, i say please sir do us a favor and check google yourself, instead of reading poor pathetic blogs and repeat what they say. santa muerte looks nothing like this tshirt!
to the “cool open minded” Mark: i personally against banning stuff, but the situation in lebanon has become like this: if it hurts muslims, burn the fucking country down, if it hurts christians, oh you people need to be open minded and cool…etc
this is the same in politics, and everything else.
so just like if Bershka released a tshirt with a cartoon about mohammed, the country will burnt down, i believe bershka should pull this tshirt at least out of lebanese markets, cause we are not pushovers, i’m sure you are Mark or whatever your name is behind “Mark”.

Just because you don’t find this T shirt offensive that doesn’t mean that others should also find it not offensive, after all, this is what open minded means, and not imposing one’s views on others. I am against a ban, but the person wearing this T shirt should expect a negative reaction. the reaction to this T shirt is called a clash of mentalities. The picture of the lady of Guadalupe specifically is very sacred to the ppl who know its history.

It is not limited to religion, it can be related also to any ideology, doctrine, political party, za3im etc… Imagine walking in Becharre wearing a T shirt representing a well known icon of Samir Geagea but instead he is represented in the style of Lady Gaga (to play with the words only). Although it is funny, cool, innovative, call it whatever you like but you can’t ask ppl to accept it because they should be open minded. some will restrain from reacting, but you may not guarantee everybody to do so.

You may decide to clash with the set of values but this is your decision. Here it is about acceptance of deviant art in other countries it may be acceptance of drugs for example.

The gov bans stuff without knowing what It is, If were gonna leave these stuff between the hands of religious parties or others, most of the products/music entering Lebanon will be banned(because they don’t know shit). For example Iron Maiden’s album The Number Of The Beast was banned because it contained “devilish lyrics” and turns out after a proper research that it has nothing to do with the devil.

The Bershka representation most probably represents the struggle between social/economical classes… I – and other experts in Religions such as R. Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies and a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Read “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint”, Oxford University Press – don’t think that suppressing those representations is a winning strategy for the Catholic Church, especially in areas where the rise of devotion can be attributed at least in part to a lack of attention to teaching the people about their faith in the first place. One of the things that have attracted people to Santa Muerte is that death is evenhanded, coming just the same for the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak. The Church too often in Mexico is seen as being on the side of the rich and the powerful, and Santa Muerte seems to be using her scythe to bring it down a few pegs — just as her followers believe she can do to their enemies. In some ways adherents view her as a supernatural version of themselves. One of the main attractions of folk saints is their similarities with devotees. For example, they typically share the same nationality and social class with their adherents. Indeed, many devotees are attracted by the leveling effect of Santa Muerte’s scythe, which obliterates divisions of race, class and gender. One of the most oft-repeated acclamation is that the Bony Lady “doesn’t discriminate.”

As a Sciences of Religions’ Scholar and University Professor, I urge my fellow citizens to conduct researches before judging, be less ignorant of religious symbolism and rituals in their country and around the world, and more open to religious/political diversity and freedom of expression.

Again,this has nothing to do with Santa Muerte, stop damn repeating what they told you in some blogs.

and Mark, my question is here, would you have the same reaction if this was a tshirt offensive to Islam ? or you would condemning the people who did it ?
My bet is, you’d be too scared to play the role of the cool open minded dude that you’re playing here in this blog.

For the lovely sweet lovely innocent heads who are defending the ugly Bershka t-shirt (religion aside, it’s damn ugly)by saying the picture is of Santa Muerte , who symbolises a reverance to death, (which is an old Mexican heathen belief, not recognized by the church or has any history of being mentioned in our faith) please know what ur speaking about :
1-Our Holy Mother never revealed herself in any appearance throughout the whole world , as a Lady of Death, as our Lord Jesus and his Mother and his Saints , are saints of life and joy.And our Holy Mother always identifies herself in her appearances, as Lady of Fatima , Lady of Medjugorje , Lady of Peace, Lady of Immaculate Conception…….but never she revealed herself as our Lady of Death.
2-For those who are saying it has nothing to do with Our Holy Mother, and it’s a different saint, Santa Muerte is not a saint you narrow headed bugs.It’s a copy of the Lady of Guadalupe, with skulls instead of roses, so it doesn’t symbolise a saint instead of Our Holy Mother…….no you peanut headed commercial slaves no. If it was some kind of a saint , it should have manifested it’s presence, to at least one of the millions of her followers (sadly), but there has never been a single miracle or message from god through her intercession.
It’s simply an old heathen belief , being used as a message to piss off Christians around the world, which happens to be a copy of Lady of Guadalupe, with skulls instead of her head and roses.(wooowwww what a disgusting coincidence)
To the ones who like it , your choice is your choice,we can’t force you to not like it.Just don’t use it to piss off people and know that it is indeed the reason they are using it for: to sell more, using the love and hate of different minds and beliefs.
As St Estephan Nehme said : God sees me , and sees all my work. Just remember this.

Not any excuse in the world can make us accept this blasphemy upon our lovely virgin Mary, to all the evils of the world : Do whatever u want, you will never defeat Jesus and us the christians who beleive in him ! I pity you

the lady of skulls(catrina) is a very meaningful figure in the latin cultures, it represents a lady with roses who is believed to have connections with the souls of the dead.I’m personally muslim, and i think that this t-shirt is very offensive(which you will find alot of those t-shirts in other brands)regardless of the fact that she is important for some cultures the position of “the lady is skulls” is obviously made on purpose ( google it , the lady of skulls can be represented in many ways, but not this one, which is the exact position of the virgin Mary)

I lived in Mexico all of my life and I can tell you something, nobody venerates that graphic. La Virgen de Guadalupe (Mother of Guadalupe) is venerated by Mexicans, and is kind of a symbol of Mexican tradition. We even have a day dedicated to her (dia de la virgen). That graphic displayed on the t-shirt is just a the Virgen de Guadalupe represented a la bershka way. La Santa Muerte is represented in another way, and if you click on the Wikipedia link you will see pictures of the Santa Muerte. In Mexico we don’t venerate anything that looks like that.
Najib, please get your facts straight.

There are people who has their own oppinions… bershka i going to sell it anyways weither you’re okay with it or not because some people will like this shirt and if you don’t like it just don’t buy it it’s so simple!